1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing dry noodles. The term "noodles" will be used throughout in a wide sense to include pastas, Japanese noodles, Chinese noodles and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
When cooked, dry noodles, such as fried noodles, hot-air dried noodles, freeze-dried noodles, etc., usually have a different feel in the mouth than traditional noodles, and rarely match the requirements of today's consumers who desire an authentic taste. They differ from raw noodles particularly in the aspects of "firmness", "glutinosity" and "smoothness/swallowability". Furthermore, while efforts have been made to develop many different soups that can match the varied preferences of today's consumers, there has not been a similar diversification in the noodles themselves, and this situation is believed to occur because the method of rehydrating with hot water, for example, is an impediment to diversification of the noodles themselves.
Another problem which occurs during processing is that the noodle strands adhere to each other after cooking (pregelatinization). Such adhesion between noodle strands has a major adverse effect during processing such as water treatment, flavoring, acidifying, frying, hot air drying, etc. which follows the cooking (pregelatinization) of the noodle strands, while the disadvantage of poor loosening also occurs even when hot water is added for rehydration of the noodles after they have been so processed, and therefore no satisfactory solution has yet been achieved.